Hello! Welcome to your sixth lesson.
In our last lesson, we dove deep into the brain's reward system, learning that dopamine is the chemical of "wanting," not "liking," and that it drives motivation by creating a cycle of anticipation and pursuit. This was a fantastic way to conclude our first module on the foundational systems of the brain.
Today, we'll address a question that comes even before motivation: In a world saturated with information, how does a brand capture a consumer's attention in the first place? We will explore the brain's automatic, instantaneous mechanism for noticing things that are new or different. Our goal is to explain the 'orienting response' and novelty detection as foundational mechanisms for capturing attention.
This lesson bridges what we've learned about the brain's deep, primal systems with our next module, which focuses on Perception and Attention.
The Brain's Gatekeeper
Before any marketing message can be processed, persuade, or motivate, it must pass through the brain's vigilant gatekeeper. As you know from your experience in sales, if you can't get your foot in the door, the rest of your pitch doesn't matter. The brain works in a similar way.
This initial filtering happens at a subconscious level, in what is often called the "primal brain." To learn more about this concept, let's look at a resource that breaks it down.
How to Use Neuromarketing in Your Digital Marketing
The podcast transcript 'How to Use Neuromarketing in Your Digital Marketing' with Felix Cao offers a very accessible model for understanding this. It describes how the brain acts as a 'cognitive miser' and uses its lower, more primitive parts as a filter.
Please read the first section of the transcript, starting from Rich's question 'Why is the primal brain so important...' and ending where Felix says '...to trigger in your customer’s brains.' Focus on the idea of the primal brain acting as a 'gatekeeper' for information.
The key idea here is that conscious, logical thought (handled by the neocortex) is energy-intensive. To conserve energy, the brain uses its more primitive, automatic systems to filter the millions of bits of sensory information we receive every second. Only the most important signals are passed along for higher-level processing.
The specific neurological structure that performs this role is the Reticular Activating System (RAS). Think of the RAS as a bouncer at a club. It stands at the entrance to your conscious awareness and decides which sensory information gets in and which is ignored.
So, what kind of information does the RAS bouncer decide is important enough to let through? The answer is simple: anything that is new, unexpected, or different.
The "What's That?" Reflex: The Orienting Response
When the RAS detects a novel stimulus, it triggers an immediate and involuntary reaction known as the Orienting Response.
This is the technical term for the "What's that?" reflex. Imagine you're reading a book and you hear a sudden crash. You automatically stop reading, your head turns towards the sound, your heart rate might increase slightly, and your pupils may dilate. This is the orienting response. It's your brain and body automatically re-allocating attention to the new stimulus to assess it: Is it a threat? Is it an opportunity? Is it something I need to deal with?
This mechanism is a direct legacy of our evolutionary past. In an ancestral environment, quickly noticing a rustle in the grass (a potential predator) or a flash of color (a potential food source) was critical for survival.
This automatic response is a powerful tool for marketers. By deliberately breaking a pattern, you can trigger the orienting response and force consumers to pay attention, even if only for a second.
How to Use Neuromarketing in Your Digital Marketing
Let's return to the transcript with Felix Cao. He gives an excellent marketing example of how this works in practice, using the term 'pattern interruptions' to describe the technique of triggering the orienting response.
Please read the section where Rich asks if the list is a priority. Focus on Felix's explanation of why 'novel' is first and his description of the Energizer commercial that uses 'orientation response' and 'pattern interruptions' (shifting camera angles).
As the resource explains, even something as simple as changing the camera angle frequently in a video can act as a "pattern interrupt," causing the brain to continually re-orient its attention. This keeps the viewer engaged and prevents their mind from wandering.
Novelty: The Master Key to Attention
The orienting response is the mechanism, but novelty is the key that triggers it. Your brain is wired to seek out and pay attention to what's new.
This drive is so fundamental that the brain even rewards itself for noticing new things. As we explore in the following reading, encountering novelty activates the brain's reward system, releasing a small amount of dopamine—the very chemical of "wanting" we discussed in the last lesson. This creates a small hit of pleasure and motivates us to explore the new thing further.
Novelty: How New Ideas Grab Attention
The article 'Novelty: How New Ideas Grab Attention' explains the neuroscience behind this beautifully, linking the RAS to the dopamine system.
Please read the section 'The Psychology Behind It', focusing on the parts about the Reticular Activating System (RAS) and the dopaminergic system. This connects today's lesson directly to our previous one.
This means that by presenting something new, marketers aren't just grabbing attention; they are also creating a small, positive emotional experience that encourages further engagement.
So, how does this look in practice? Novelty isn't just about inventing a completely new product. It can be applied in many ways:
- Presentation Novelty: Using unexpected visuals, a strange sound in an ad, or surprising packaging.
- Message Novelty: A headline or tagline that breaks expectations and sparks curiosity.
- Experiential Novelty: An unusual in-store experience or a creative interactive website.
A classic example of novelty in action is Blendtec's famous "Will It Blend?" YouTube series.
How to Use Neuromarketing in Your Digital Marketing
Let's look at one final clip from the podcast transcript, where Felix Cao discusses this specific campaign. It's a perfect illustration of using extreme novelty to capture mass attention.
Read the part where Felix gives examples for digital marketing, specifically his description of the Blendtec videos. Consider why throwing an iPhone into a blender is so effective at capturing attention.
No one had ever seen a company put an iPhone in a blender before. The sheer novelty was so powerful that it broke through the noise of online video, triggered a massive orienting response ("What is happening?!"), and made millions of people pay attention to a brand of blenders they had likely never heard of.
Test your understanding!
Imagine you are a marketing manager for a well-established brand of chocolate that has been using the same style of advertising for years (e.g., slow-motion shots of melting chocolate). Sales are flat.
Based on what you've learned about the orienting response and novelty, propose one specific change to a new TV commercial that would act as a "pattern interrupt" to capture attention. Explain why it would work.
Show answer
There are many possible answers, but here's one example:
The Change: The commercial starts with the sound of a record scratching and cuts to a completely unrelated, bizarre scene—for example, an astronaut floating in space, slowly unwrapping the chocolate bar. Then, after a few seconds of this silent, strange visual, a tagline appears: "The taste that brings you back to Earth."
Why it Works: This strategy directly leverages novelty to trigger the orienting response.
- It breaks the established pattern: Viewers expecting a typical, cozy chocolate ad are confronted with a completely unexpected and illogical scene. Their brain's gatekeeper (the RAS) immediately flags this as novel.
- It triggers the orienting response: The viewer's automatic reaction is, "What am I watching? What does this have to do with chocolate?" This captures their full attention as they try to make sense of the new information.
- It sparks curiosity: The mismatch between the visual (space) and the product (chocolate) creates a curiosity gap that encourages them to keep watching to find the resolution.
Conclusion
Today, you've learned about the brain's very first filter for incoming information—a critical hurdle that every piece of marketing must overcome.
Here are your key takeaways:
- The brain uses an automatic filter, the Reticular Activating System (RAS), to protect itself from sensory overload and conserve energy.
- The RAS is programmed to pay attention to novelty—anything new, different, or unexpected.
- When a novel stimulus is detected, it triggers the Orienting Response, an involuntary reflex where we shift our attention to assess the new information.
- Marketers can strategically use novelty and pattern interruptions in their messaging, visuals, and experiences to hijack this mechanism and capture the consumer's initial attention.
You have now completed Module 1: Foundations of the Consumer Brain! You've built an excellent base, understanding brain structures, conscious vs. unconscious processing, memory formation, motivation, and now, attention.
In our next lesson, we will officially begin Module 2: Perception and Attention in a Distracted World. Building directly on today's topic, we will explore what happens after the orienting response is triggered. We’ll trace the pathway of how sensory signals—like the light from a logo or the sound from a jingle—travel into the brain and become a conscious perception.